Resubmission Queries

I my opinion presentation is miniature of report, if report again then presentation again. But lets have second opinion.
Please @trephena

Thanks

Hello, @ Anna… Please could you explain what the presentation part of the SLS is, I am a bit confused about this. I passed my SLS but failed the presentation part of it

@nsigirlv

If you have failed the Presentation Part of SLS, you will need to resubmit it.

“If a student passes the SLS section in full (Both Learning Statement and Presentation) then this does not have to be re-submitted. However if one part has been failed then only that part must be resubmitted.”

Anna

@kolapopson

Could please help me out here. Am finalizing my re-submission. The comment passed by the moderator for my SLS were: Self reflection pass, Communication skills (including presentation) failed. Reasons: please add some more slides with the results of your analysis. Now, having reworked on my presentation, would you advise that I revise my SLS, and if so, which area of the 4 main questions? Do I have to indicate in the SLS that I failed and have to revisit my project mentor?.
Urgent response and thanks in advance

I need advise please to make sure I do understand feedback from the marker. My apologies, I tried to respond on the other forum but I failed as it keeps asking me to log in but I am logged on already.

I submitted last period and I was doing topic 8,

1. I failed on Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions.

The feedback I got was,: However at present your explanations for the trends you are finding in the financial data are too speculative, Aim to establish a the link between the financial results and sources relating to the business context and this will strengthen and give substance to your argument

Does it mean I will have to re-do the whole chapter of both “financial “and “business” analysis only and if so, I intend to change from Porter’s five forces and use PESTEL, please is this advisable as I passed on Understanding of accountancy/business models, or I would just have to stick to the same models but I did battle a lot with Porter though went to submit anyway.? I also used SWOT but I do not intend to change it only Porter.

2. I also failed on Information gathering and Referencing .

The feed back I got was: The analysis and evaluation area would be greatly helped by widening your sources of critical information. Please try to find information about company decisions and events which enable more concrete explanation of the company’s results and financial position?

Is it necessary for me to approach the company for the information of this sort , or I can just use whatever I find on the internet that is related to this and reference accordingly? I only used secondary data for the initial submission? I do not work for the organisation i did the RAP on.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

@maggs – lots of good advice for you there from @Hammad Ahmed Qureshi so I don’t need to add much – apologies for any repetitions but at least you know if we are both saying the same thing it must be important!:

1 Evaluation – don’t write things like this “could be due to”; “this might be because” etc – that is what the marker meant by conjecture. The aim of research is to come up with ACTUAL researched reasons that account for the changes in the trends so that you are not speculating about why something happened you KNOW what caused it.

They also want to see that you are applying some of the factors from the SWOT /PESTLE – your business analysis – by linking it to your financial analysis, so try to show how the company has built on the strengths etc you have identified to improve its financial position

2. When you research more widely using the sources that @Hammad Ahmed Qureshi has suggested you will find much of the information will help you come up with proper reasons for what has driven the changes that you see in the trends

3. I always think a useful way to approach evaluation in Topic 8 is to read some of the CEO / Directors’ reports for earlier years as they often show the strategies that they are using / plan to use and then you can sometimes see these ‘in action’ when you analyse the results for subsequent years (using these may be how you can link your business and financial analyses more appropriately) – these strategies are what the marker meant by ‘company decisions’

You do not need to use primary data for Topic 8. A grade students just use the sources well and show confident analysis as they have done excellent secondary research

BTW @maggs if you can’t post and it keeps asking you to log in it is often because someone else is posting something. It is a nuisance but usually only a temporary blip 🙂

@maggs I’m glad that you found the advice from @Hammad Ahmed Qureshi and from me helpful

One other thing that would also be useful to you and I recommend that you look at and read now is my article on the Resubmission statement available at:

https://opentuition.com/obu/resubmission-statement/

I wrote this as so many students just don’t realise how useful addressing this statement right at the very start of preparing a resubmission can be, as it helps focus you on dealing with the issues that caused you to fail previously so that you can then be successful next time 😀

Hi Lilconnel,

I advice you read the Resubmission package for expectation.

All the best

@iainjohnston87 – Absolutely if there are more recent financial statements available you have got to use them – the Information pack makes this very clear. If there are no new financial statements then no you don’t – but only if you are sure that you were only failed on referencing. If your fail included E & A or info gathering then it means your analysis was not done in sufficient depth or linked to your business analysis so you would need to correct this

@ts1110 in response to your email to me and your comment left on another forum:

@ts1110 said:

hey all
said I failed in again. very disappointed. what topic u have done?which company u have done? my chosen company was Tesco and Sainsbury.
thank u

OK I am guessing here but my money would be on that you failed principally on Evaluation & Analysis + Information Gathering and Referencing – would I be right?

It all comes down to learning the correct approach to research and way to evaluate. I have written extensively about this – for a start look at the FAQs on our home page and read my article on Evaluation:
http://www.opentuition.com/obu

I have also discussed it in numerous posts so use the search facility to look for these or click on my avatar, then forums and then my replies and look at those made in April and May 2014.

I have tried repeatedly to tell students that E & A is not really about calculating a ratio and making statements of the obvious, it is about digging deeper and finding the real reasons that something has happened. The environment that Tesco and Sainsbury’s operate in is very dynamic you need to focus on the management strategies and appropriate ratios and abandon a ‘text-book’ approach to it – instead of doing the quick ratio and saying they are carrying too much stock (a totally unsuitable ratio for a supermarket), look at the KPIs that organisations use themselves. There is a lot of good info in the FS and most of it is in the CEO and Directors’ reports NOT in the notes to the accounts! Try looking at the business pages of the Daily Telegraph and the BBC news website or similar websites (they all have search facilities) – just show the marker that you have really thought about the business instead of trotting out weak ‘explanations’ that really tell the reader nothing they couldn’t see for themselves if they looked at the financial statements.

I keep telling students (and so did the OBU marker in our FAQs) that you need to let your graphs do the talking. Put both companies trends on the same graph then you don’t need to tell anyone that profits etc. have slumped – the marker is not blind they will be able to see it for themselves – they want you to tell them about how the PESTLE and SWOT factors have affected the sales and profit figures etc. instead.

Here is some actual moderator feedback to a student who had failed twice:

“Analysis is about explaining the factors and causes that have driven the performance (and not just describing changes in ratios) and is accomplished by researching and using a variety of data sources: trade and industry journals, websites, analyst reports as well as the annual reports; distilling key information; assessing what is relevant and presenting this succinctly to support the changes in the company’s performance. Evaluation means looking beyond the numbers and movements in the trends and bringing in factors that have driven and influenced the company’s performance relating the SWOT & PESTLE factors to the company’s performance and showing how they and the management decisions (see the management reports in the annual report) have impacted on the results and influenced the various strategies. You need to EXPLAIN what lies behind the figures rather than describe performance purely in numerical terms for both your main company and its comparator.”

Do what they ask – that is the way to pass….

PS I also suggest that you read my article on the Resubmission Statement NOW rather than later – also available at http://www.opentuition.com/obu
so that you focus on the weaknesses the marker commented on in their feedback

3. Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions Fail
Reasons for fail and advice for improvement:
This was a well prepared project, your layout and structure was good, and in some aspects you met or surpassed the required criteria. However you did not meet all the criteria to pass. Your analysis cannot be reasonably assessed because of your poor referencing practice.

6. Information gathering and Referencing Fail
Reasons for fail and advice for improvement:
Unfortunately your work is inadequately referenced. Corporate sources i.e. Porter five forces analysis in particular are not referenced. This is a key academic skill and without adequate referencing I cannot differentiate your contribution from that of others. Both the ratio analysis and the business analysis need to be thoroughly referenced. Referencing is a key academic skill and one that you must demonstrate competence in before a degree can be awarded. Please see the guidelines on how to reference properly using the Harvard system. You have appeared to have used the financial accounts but these are not referenced.